Whew!
I've been trying to get around to an update for weeks, now, but October's been so crazy I haven't had time! I have, however, had lots of breakfasts! I made it out to Golden Bear on a couple occasions (official review pending!).
One of those brunches was a pre-emptive birthday breakfast with a couple of film-makin' buddies. We went out to see the prequel version of "The Thing," which was thoroughly entertaining, and well executed. Is it as good as John Carpenter's? No, but honestly, few movies are; his version is a beautiful example of suspense, horror, sci-fi, and film-making in general. My parents also took me out to Tower on my actual birthday, and I enjoyed the seasonal french toast, a side of their great bacon, and a delicious, free dessert! The next day I trucked it down to Orphan to have a tasty smoothie and breakfast quesadilla!
I spent a lot of free time hunting for various costumes for the multiple events over the month, and it was nice to see the city getting in the mood, too! I co-hosted the Comedy Spot's Cage Match on Thursday, a competitive comedy show hosted by my new buddy Chris Miller. In a Halloween theme, I played my scary-clown-luchador character El Payaso Del Diablo. It was a lot of fun and a good chance to perform on stage again! El Payaso is a fun, bizarre and creepy character to play, a sort of odd mix of innocence and ultra violence. Chris: "So, you're a clown...and you do birthday parties. What sort of things do you do?" Payaso: "Well, you know, I know some balloon animals, and some magic tricks." Chris: "Oh. magic tricks? Like what?" Payaso: "Well, I can pull a guy's intestines out of his ear!"
The next weekend was insanely full; all three days I utilized my pass for the Sacramento Horror Film Festivalto its fullest, spending as much time as I could in the historic Colonial Theatre, soaking up some great horror films! The festival is very well organized, and has a great variety of small, indie films and studio films. The first night I took in some shorts, and then the appropriately named "Vile," the flagship for cinema's torture-porn armada. Friday and Saturday night I also found myself at the Crest for TFO's showing of Zombie. For the pre-show, I found myself dressed as a pimp, out on K Street with my zombie-boxing cohort Rae Wright, yelling at strangers. It was amazing! Zombie was fantastic, and a true Trash Film; a perfect blend of awesome and terrible, perfect for heckling and appreciation!
Saturday I made my way to the Mighty Kong Cafe for breakfast, and some of muy chosen Halloween reading, the wonderful, VanderMeer-edited tome "Thackery T. Lambshead's Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases," a compendium of fictional diseases that range from the hilarious to the horrific. I got a waffle with their house-made sausages, and some one of their renowned muffins!
At the Fest, I got to watch Nightmare Before Christmas on the big screen, and it was followed by tons of awesome shorts. Then, one of the highlights of the entire festival for me, the feature Absentia. This movie is amazing! It starts a little heavy-handed, but contains some of the most sincere acting I've ever seen, and is one of the best examples of low-budget, less-is-more horror ever. Brilliant! Sunday I got to see another of my new favorites, Trick 'R Treat, and a lot of shorts, including the Filmmaker's Challenge shorts. One was my entry; a short I acted in along with Christina Crowe, Sean Kime, and Steffie Hyden. We filmed it entirely on cellphones in a day or three. It ended up winning not only the Judges' Award, but the Audience Choice Award as well! It was a lot of fun and really rewarding!
The next week, I worked the third annual One Scary Night party. I got to have a bit of a bigger role than the previous two years, including the ability to speak! The last couple times I've worked it, I've been a zombie, but this year I got to be the diabolic Ringmaster. The part was a lot quieter than previous years, however, and since my own entertainment is directly linked to crowdwork, it wasn't quite as much fun, either. I spent the next day recovering, especially since Saturday was ultra-loaded!
I scooted over to Tower for some of their incredible pumpkin pancakes first thing. Always a seasonal favorite. Next, I spent the afternoon with family before spending the evening with friends; specifically, the delightfully demented folks of the Trash Film Orgy. It was an awesome warehouse party, filled with fantastic costumes. I dressed up as the Obelisk from 2001: A Space Odyssey (that's right I did!). There was a Link, a Rattman from Portal, Peter Pan and his (her) Shadow, X-23, Mystique, Wolverine, and Zatanna, just to name a few. It was a thoroughly entertaining night, which also included live performances from Tragically White, as well as the debut of the TFO-produced Tragically White video I got to shoot with them a few weeks back!
Overall, it was a pretty incredible month; I rounded it out with an awesome haunted house, Nosferatu on the big screen, and Rocky Horror. Now I'm trying to get my feet back under me for an equally exciting Holiday season. More soon!
